Why protesters firebomb banks in Lebanon

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COVID-19, JOKES Chadi Khoury, might have been good for his mental health. For six weeks a nationwide lockdown meant he could not fix a busted refrigerator in his Beirut snack shop. Now he can—but he has spent all morning arguing over prices. Repairmen want to be paid in dollars, which he lacks: gone are the days when customers might buy their falafel with greenbacks. “We’re in Lebanon, not America,” he yells into the phone. “Give me the price in Lebanese.” Down the street, the owner of a salon crunches the numbers for $400-worth of new shavers. Last year that was equal to about 25 haircuts. Today, even after raising prices, he will need to coif 60 customers to cover the bill.

Lebanon is lurching back to life. Most businesses closed in mid-March to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Even Barbar, a much-loved west Beirut takeaway that served shawarma behind sandbags during the civil war, pulled down its shutters. But the government is...